HOME hosts Resource Fair Sat.

If you’re looking for answers in hard times — or just anytime — Holden’s Resource Fair may just have them.

The first (and, Help at HOME hopes, annual) Resource Fair will be held at the Holden Senior Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 20, and will include not just chances to get help, but chances to give it.

Attendees will find booths with information about everything from fuel assistance to bereavement counseling, emergency planning to health screenings, and will be able to make donations as well: food donations for the Wachusett Food Pantry will be accepted as well as clothing donations for the Corner Shop.

There will also be information about the group that organized the fair, Help at HOME, a group formed to help marshal resources for anyone in town in need.

The Resource Fair is that group’s most recent way to reach out to those who might want information they could pick up themselves.

“We were trying to find more tangible ways of helping,” said Help at HOME Co-Chairman Karen Halley.

HOME stands for Holden Outreach Managing Emergencies, and it’s just what the group has organized to do, largely with the town’s Welcome Aldrich Fund as a model and an adjunct. That fund accepts donations from Holden residents to help their fellow Holdenites with their energy costs; Help at HOME has organized to help folks with other costs that might arise in a difficult economy, and to get together a list of other places folks could go to get the help they need. The group’s resource guide, created in 2009, has a 2010 update (available at the Senior Center or townofholden.net; click on “Help at HOME”).

For more information, or to apply for assistancefrom Help at HOME, call the senior center at 508-829-0271.